Vietnam's air-conditioned trains are
the ideal way for independent travellers to get around
Vietnam. You might even meet some Vietnamese people. Inexperienced
travellers sometimes think they'll save time by using internal
flights, but an overnight train ride from Hanoi to Hué or Danang
actually saves time over flying, because the train leaves
Hanoi in the evening and arrives in Hué next
morning, city centre to city centre, saving a hotel bill too. But it's more than this, the train journey is a genuine
Vietnamese experience, an integral part of your trip. Air-conditioned
trains link Hanoi, Hué,
Danang, Nha Trang, and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Hoi An
is just 30km by bus or taxi from Danang. There
are also trains from Hanoi to Haiphong (for Halong Bay) and Hanoi to
Lao Cai (for Sapa).

The view from the train...

Rice fields, palm trees, water buffalo, Vietnamese towns
and villages... You get a real insight into Vietnam when you travel by
train, both urban and rural, which you don't get from 35,000 feet. And if
you're good at people watching you'll get insights on board the train, too - the
real Vietnam is as much inside as outside the train. The most magical part of
a Hanoi to Saigon
train journey is the world-class scenic section between Hué and Danang.
The train runs along the South China Sea, snaking from cliff to jungle-covered
cliff past beaches and islands, then heads through the lush green mountains via
the Hai Van Pass to reach Danang. In Vietnamese it's Đèo Hải Vân
meaning 'Ocean Cloud Pass', and I can't think of a better name. In the bright Vietnamese sun, the vivid blue skies,
green waters and yellow beaches will take your breath away... See the video, Hanoi-Saigon by train.

Is it Ho Chi Minh or Saigon?

Since the end of the
Vietnamese war, the official the name for the conurbation as a whole
has been Ho Chi Minh City
(HCMC). However, the city centre is still officially called
Saigon, which is the city's traditional and historic name. In fact, the city appears as Sai Gon in all Vietnamese railway
timetables, it will say Sai Gon on your train ticket and as you can see
from the photo, it actually says 'Sai Gon' in big letters on the station
itself. The ruling elite may toe the line and call it Ho Chi Minh, but
everyone else calls it Saigon. So do what the locals do,
call it Saigon!

Required by UK & most other western citizens. Vietnamese
embassy visa section, 12-14 Victoria Road, London W8 5RD, tel. 020
7937 3222, fax 020 7937 6108, www.vietnamembassy.org.uk.
To apply for a Visa-on-arrival at any major Vietnamese airport you can use visa
agency
www.vietnam-visa.com. You cannot use a visa-on-arrival if you
arrive in Vietnam overland.

Note that e-visas don't seem to be valid for entering or
leaving Vietnam by rail via Dong Dang, only by road via Doing Dang, you either
need a proper visa or use the 15-day visa exempt arrangement as per the update
below.

UPDATE: Until at least 30 June 2018, citizens of UK, France, Spain,
Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark & Finland can
visit Vietnam visa-free for stays of up to 15 days, not returning within the
next 30 days.

The Reunification Line...

Trains between Hanoi & Saigon are sometimes referred to as the
Reunification Express by guide books and tourist agencies, although there are now
a whole range of trains on this route and no single train
officially carries this name. The line was completed by the French
in 1936, and trains linked Hanoi to Saigon until 1954, when Vietnam was
divided into north and south and the railway was cut. The trains
resumed on 31 December 1976, unifying the country once more. You
too can easily travel the length of Vietnam using the reunification
railway, a travel experience in its own right. Over the last decade the
Hanoi-Saigon train service has steadily improved with more trains & newer
rolling stock. Here are the principal
services, there
are additional trains at peak times such as the
Tet holiday period
in late January or February.

Notes by train number...

All these trains run every day
except trains SE7 & SE8 which only run at busy periods.

If an 04:30 or 05:20 arrival in
Saigon or Hanoi seems uncomfortably early, remember that in SE Asia it's
usual to rise earlier than most westerners do, and you'll find plenty of taxis
available at this time. It's not like arriving in a western city that
early, so don't worry!

Livitrans & Violette private tourist sleeping-cars, Hanoi-Hué-Danang: Trains
SE1, SE2, SE3 & SE4 have a couple of tourist sleeping-cars attached between Hanoi, Hue & Danang, run by
private companies Livitrans (on SE3/SE4)and Violette Trains
(on SE1/SE2.
These have 4-berth air-con soft sleepers of exactly the same sort as the best
refurbished regular Vietnamese Railways ones, but
with slightly better on-board service and (of course) significantly higher fares, see the photos, information
& advice below. Note that at busy times, for example Tet & high summer,
these Livitrans & Violette cars may run in trains SE5/SE6 rather
than SE1/SE2, so check when booking.
Livitrans & Violette tickets are bookable at
www.baolau.com
&
12Go.Asia
- look for the Livitrans or Violette logos rather than VR logo in
the search results.

Livitrans and
Golden Trains operate private tourist sleeping-cars between Saigon & Nha Trang
on trains SNT1 & SNT2, see
the photo below. These have 4-berth soft sleepers of a higher quality
than the regular sleepers. Fare $38 for a bed in a 4-berth sleeper,
bookable at
www.baolau.com
or
12Go.Asia
- look for the Golden Trains or Livitrans logo rather than VR logo in the search results.

Train fares in Vietnam are
cheap, and sleeper trains save on hotel bills as well as the cost of taxis to &
from airports way outside the cities they serve. The fares shown below are
typical fares for the SE1, SE2, SE3 or SE4, fares in fact vary slightly by
season, and fares for the less prestigious SE5/6/7/8/9/10 are slightly lower.
The old system of charging foreigners higher fares than Vietnamese citizens was
abolished in 2002.

Do I need a
reservation? Can I stop off? Can I buy an
open ticket and hop on & off?

Yes, yes, no... You cannot
buy an open ticket and hop on and off trains at random, as all trains require a reservation.
All tickets come printed with a specific date, train number, car number
and reserved seat or berth number. So you need a
separate ticket for each individual train journey you make. If you want to travel from Saigon to Hanoi (or vice versa) stopping
off on the way, no problem, you simply need to book a series of separate
tickets, one for each leg of the journey, either
bought in advance or
bought at the station as you go along.

Do I need to
book in advance? Do trains get fully booked?

Booking opens 60 days before
departure, sometimes more than 90 days before departure, for the end-to-end
journey, for example Hanoi to Saigon on trains SE1 or SE3. Shorter
segments of the journey - for example Hanoi to Hue to Nha Trang to Saigon on
the SE1 or SE3 - open later, with the really short hops only opening a week
or two ahead.

At peak holiday periods such as
Tet
(Vietnamese new year, in late January or February) you should definitely
pre-book as soon as booking opens, but at other times it's not usually difficult to
buy tickets at the station a few days in advance if you're not too fussy
about the exact date, train or class. If you are booking
for the same day or the following day, you might find the best
quality SE trains full, but other slower trains may have berths
available, or perhaps you'll find the soft sleepers full, but hard
sleepers still available, so be prepared to be flexible.
However, you're unlikely to get stuck as there's usually something
available to your destination even at fairly short notice.

If it's mission-critical to be on
a specific train on a certain date in a certain class, I recommend
paying the small amount extra to pre-book tickets online through
12Go.Asia or
www.baolau.com,
as shown below.

Privacy-loving
westerners often ask this
- even though they'll happily sleep with 300 strangers
on a long haul flight. Yes, you can pay
for 4 tickets for sole occupancy of a 4-berth soft sleeper if you
really want to, but you may need to politely but firmly repulse any attempt by
other passengers to join you, or by staff to allocate passengers to
your spare beds. My advice is
don't bother, you'll
be safe and comfortable sharing a 4-berth soft sleeper and might
meet some Vietnamese people this way, rather than
sitting in isolation.

12Go.Asia provides an
excellent service for booking train tickets in Thailand & Malaysia and
now they sell train tickets for Vietnam too. They show 'live'
availability of seats & berths, booking confirmation is instant and
international credit cards are accepted.

You can now click an option to
choose exact seats or berths from a seating plan, to make sure you're all
together in one compartment.

12go sells tickets for both regular Vietnamese Railways trains and many
privately-run cars such as Livitrans, Violette, Fansipan, Orient Express and Golden
Trains.

Bookings can only be made
when Vietnamese Railways open reservations. For longer distances this is usually 60 days ahead
but may be only a week or two for shorter hops. So if the train you
want is labelled unavailable either come back later or try another train
if it's within 60 days of travel. Livitrans & Golden Trains reservations
may open further ahead.

12Go.Asia charge the official
Vietnamese Railways price plus around 60,000 dong ($2.70) service fee per ticket
plus around 4% of the price (perhaps $3 per ticket
for Hanoi-Hue, for example) for online credit card payment.

You will be emailed an e-ticket
which you can either print out or keep on your smartphone to show when boarding
the train. It's now really easy, as for regular Vietnamese Railways trains there is no need to collect tickets or
have them sent anywhere, just show your e-ticket!

Children under 6 go free with no
ticket required, unless you want to give them their own berth. Children
under 10 get 25% off berth prices or 50% off seat prices. Children 10 &
over pay full price.

If your credit card is
rejected, don't assume it's 12go that's the problem. They accept all
cards from all countries, but your own bank may be blocking a Vietnamese
transaction, so call them.

By default, they'll put all your
party together in the same compartment, except where that's not possible
if for example there are only a handful of berths left on the train.

Buy tickets from
Baolau...

Train & bus booking agency
www.baolau.com offers easy online booking in
plain English with international credit cards accepted. The availability
shown by Baolau is 'live' and seats are instantly confirmed. In most cases
you simply print your own tickets. Feedback has been very positive,
further feedback is always welcome.

NEW IN 2017: Baolau's
system now allows you to choose your exact seats or berths from a seating plan
graphic. This works
for all regular Vietnam Railways seats & sleepers although not for the
privately-run sleepers.

Tip: To travel in a VIP
2-berth sleeper on train SE1 or SE2, first select 4-berth soft sleeper,
then select berths in a 2-berth compartment on the berth plan graphic.
There are only two such compartments on the train. The price will change
to the 2-berth price after you proceed.

You will be emailed an e-ticket
which you can either print out or keep on your smartphone to show when boarding
the train. It's now really easy, as for regular Vietnamese Railways trains
there is no need to collect tickets or have them sent anywhere, just show your
e-ticket.

Children under 6 free, aged 6
to 9 get 25% off berth prices, 50% off seat prices, 10 and over full price.

If your credit card is
rejected, don't assume it's Baolau that's the problem. They accept all
cards from all countries, but your own bank may be blocking a Vietnamese
transaction so call them.

By default, they'll put all your
party together in the same compartment, except where that's not possible
if for example there are only a handful of berths left on the train.

Private sleepers on key
routes: As well as the regular Vietnamese Railways cars, Baolau also sells tickets for
Violette & Livitrans on the Hanoi-Hue-Danang route, for Livitrans & Golden
Trains on the Saigon-Nha Trang route, and for Fansipan,
Orient Express, Sapaly, King Express, Chapa Express & Victoria Express on the
Hanoi-Lao Cai route.

www.baolau.com
now lets you choose your exact seats or berths from a graphic like this
so you can see what's available and make sure you'll all be in in the
same compartment together. This works for most Vietnamese Railways
seats & sleepers, although not for privately-run sleepers such as Livitrans
or Violette.

If you want to pre-book
some or all of your trains before you get to Vietnam, you can also order tickets
through one of these reliable Vietnamese
train booking agencies. They naturally charge a fee or mark-up for their service, but it's worth it to be sure of a ticket for your first choice of date, train and class.

VietnamImpressive:www.vietnamimpressive.com
would be my first choice. They're
a reliable Hanoi-based agency which specialises in train bookings and has the
Vietnamese Railways ticketing system installed in their offices. They
get regular glowing reports from seat61 correspondents. Indeed, I
have used them myself and seen their offices in Hanoi, and met their MD. They answer emails promptly and are
very helpful. For a typical Hanoi to Hué soft sleeper
ticket they charge $51 (£33), which equates to a handling fee of
about $14 (£9) over the ticket office price of 748,000 dong,
which includes delivery to any hotel in Vietnam. If you
pay securely online by credit card via Onepay there's an additional 3% credit
card charge.

International
Rail Australia: If you live in Australia, New Zealand, Asia or Africa, you can order Vietnamese train tickets
using the
contact & booking form at
www.internationalrail.com.au. This is a reliable
Melbourne-based train specialist who can arrange tickets for you
through their contacts in Vietnam. They charge around
Aus$66 (US$69) for a soft sleeper from Hanoi to Hue, Aus$48
(US$50) from Saigon to Nha Trang. Book at least 7-10 days
before travel to allow them to turn around your booking.

Vietnamese Railways launched
online booking at
www.dsvn.vn in November 2014 (DSVN = Duong Sat
Viet Nam = Vietnamese Railways). It's now available in English,
click the UK flag top right. However, although in theory it takes
MasterCard or Visa it so far only accepts Vietnamese-issued credit cards.
Further feedback appreciated.

How to use
www.dsvn.vn: If you want to have a
go or just check train times & prices,
go to www.dsvn.vn, click the UK flag for English and use
the journey planner in the usual way. In the search results, select a train, select a carriage with the
class you want, and select an exact seat or berth and click to buy. Soft sleepers are shown as a side view with 4 beds (two upper, two
lower) in each compartment, hard sleepers are also shown as a side view with 6 berths per compartment, upper middle & lower. Seats are shown
as a top-down view with two-abreast seats either side of a centre aisle - it's
obvious if you think about it. You may need to fake a
Vietnamese mobile phone number with a +84 country code if it rejects your real
one. But the problem remains that it almost certainly won't accept your
non-Vietnamese credit card.

If you don't succeed in using the
DSVN online system, try the new Baolau booking system explained below which
shows 'live' seat & berth availability and accepts all international credit
cards.

Remember that the official
Vietnamese Railways website is www.vr.com.vn
and their official online sales site is
www.dsvn.vn. vietnamrailways.net,
vietnam-railway.com, vietnamrailway.com are not Vietnamese Railways
themselves but travel agencies pretending to be.

It's easy to buy train
tickets at the station when you get to Vietnam. Trains are
busy, but except at peak holiday times such as
Tet,
if you book a day or two ahead you'll usually find tickets
available, even if your first choice of class or train is sold out. Reservations
were computerised in 2002, and you can buy tickets for most train
journeys within Vietnam at Saigon and Hanoi booking offices.
So for example, you can buy both a Saigon-Hue ticket and a Hue-Hanoi
ticket in Saigon. However, at other stations such as Hue,
Danang or Nha Trang, you may only be able to book journeys starting
at the station you're at. At ticket offices, you pay in
Vietnamese Dong, US dollars are not generally accepted, nor are
non-Vietnamese credit cards.

Tip: If you have
internet access such as hotel WiFi, see for yourself what trains &
classes are available on the Vietnamese Railways website
www.dsvn.vn. Then book
online, selecting the option to collect tickets & pay at the
station within 24 hours. You can then choose an exact seat or berth
from a carriage plan, and it avoids long conversations at the ticket
counter about what trains & classes remain available and hurried decisions about
which to choose.

...buying
tickets at the station in Hanoi

At Hanoi
main station on Le Duan Street, enter by the main doors and turn right through
the passageway to the ticket office (see the photo below right). Go to the
window marked Tourist.

Incidentally, the ugly concrete central section of an
otherwise attractive French colonial station is the
result of American bombs which flattened this part of
the station on 21 December 1972...

...buying tickets at the station in Saigon

At Saigon station, the smaller
downstairs ticket office (shown below, centre picture) is for travel today and now also seems to handle advance bookings too.
There is a larger ticket office is upstairs, but recent reports suggest this is
now only handling booking changes.
A numbered queuing system may be in operation, so look out
for it. Press the button and take a ticket from the
small box at the entrance to the ticket office, take a seat
and watch the screens which will show you which counter to
go to when your number comes up.
Feedback on ticket
purchase in Saigon is always
appreciated!

Tip: If you don't mind
a 50,000 dong ($2.50) fee per ticket, buying at the city centre ticket agency at
275C Pham Ngu Lao saves you going to the station. It's open 08:00-17:00
every day. It can be tricky to spot, see the photo below on the far right.

You take your bags - of whatever
size - onto the train with you and store them near your seat or berth, so you
have access to them throughout the journey. Bikes and even motorbikes can
be carried on Vietnamese trains, for a fee. You take your bike or
motorbike to the luggage office, pay the fee and hand it in. If it's a
motorbike, the fuel tank must be drained and empty. They'll put a label on
your bike and give you a receipt. You go and travel on the train yourself
as normal. At the other end you collect your bike from the station luggage
office.

Most visitors to Vietnam choose soft sleeper
if their journey involves overnight travel. Soft sleeper is a safe,
pleasant and enjoyable way to go, especially on the best trains, SE1, SE2, SE3,
SE4, SE5 & SE6 - although you must expect even newer cars to be a little tatty
by western standards as they are intensively used.

Each soft sleeping-car has a
corridor running down one side with seven 4-berth compartments opening off it,
each of which can be securely locked from the inside. Each compartment has 4
berths, two upper and two lower. Each berth has an individual reading
light and is supplied with pillow, sheet and
duvet. By day you simply sit on the lower berths. You keep all your bags
with you, there is luggage space beneath the bottom bunks and in the large
recess above the compartment door.

Lower berths are
recommended if you're tall, as some upper berths have a support
chain taking up an inch or two at each end. The most modern cars
used on trains SE1 to SE8 have a 2-pin power socket for
recharging your mobile or camera, and you'll find a
western-style toilet usually kept supplied with soap and toilet
paper at one or both ends of the corridor.
Several windows on the corridor side open which is useful for photography, but
the compartment windows don't open. At night, there's a lock and usually
an additional security catch on the door - flip out the security catch and the
door can't be opened more than an inch or two even with a staff key.

There's a free water dispenser at
the end of the corridor for both boiling and cold water, handy if you bring some
powdered soup, instant coffee or hot chocolate with you, or buy some dried
noodles from one of the stalls at the station. A trolley service comes
down the train serving snacks, coffee, soft drinks and beer, and at meal times a
member of the train staff will sell you a meal ticket for around 35,000 dong (£1
or $1.60). A set meal with mineral water will then be delivered to your
compartment around half an hour later from the kitchen car.

Which trains have the best
cars? Trains SE3 & SE4
received smartly-refurbished air-conditioned carriages branded '5-star' in January 2015, in red
& blue
with a broad white stripe. Trains SE1, SE2, SE5, SE6, SE7 & SE8
received similar refurbished cars in 2016. Though
there is no sign of any WiFi as originally reported in the press.
Newly-built '5-star' cars were delivered in 2017, in white with a thin red stripe
& blue
around the windows, these are now making their appearance on trains SE1 to
SE6, see the photos below.

2-berth VIP soft sleepers
on trains SE1 & SE2: Soft sleepers usually have 4-berths per
compartment, but as of 2018 a couple of the most modern soft sleeper cars on
trains SE1 & SE2 have two 2-berth VIP sleeper compartments. These have two
lower berths. The fare includes non-alcoholic drinks and meals, served in
your compartment. The fare is around 2,864,000 dong per person. With
only 4 such compartments on the whole train (just 8 beds) you need to book
early, although at the time I wrote this the 2-berth VIP sleepers don't show up
as bookable on either
www.baolau.com
or12Go.Asia, even when
www.dsvn.vn (the official
Vietnam Railways website, which unfortunately doesn't accept overseas payment
cards) shows them as still available. You will need to buy at the station
or use a local travel agency.

Hanoi-Saigon train SE1
calls at Danang in early 2018. The SE1/SE2 is now a mix of
air-conditioned
cars refurbished in 2015-2016 such as the blue & red soft sleeper
car in the
foreground and new cars delivered in 2017 such as the
next car along with the white roof. Photo courtesy of Nathaniel
Perkins.

4-berth soft sleeper, unrefurbished. My father in law is reading
the paper.
See
larger photo.

Train SE3 from Hanoi to
Saigon at Danang in early 2018. The car in the foreground with the white roof is one
of the new 5-star cars delivered in 2017. The other cars on
the SE3/SE4 are modern cars refurbished in 2015 & 2016. Courtesy
of Nathaniel Perkins.

A hot meal served in your
sleeper from the kitchen car for around $2...

If the soft
sleepers are full, or if you're in a group of 5 or 6 people,
there's no reason why you shouldn't travel hard sleeper,
especially if it's an overnight journey such as Hanoi to
Hue with relatively little daytime element so you'll spend
most of the time in your berth. Hard sleeper
compartments have 6 berths, lower, middle and top on each side,
but apart from the extra two berths, the facilities are exactly the same as for
soft sleepers in terms of power sockets, water dispenser,
toilets, luggage space and meals.

These can be recommended for
daytime journeys such as Hue to Danang or Hanoi to Vinh, but for
overnight trips always book a soft or hard sleeper so you can
sleep properly.
In the most modern cars used on the SE-numbered trains, you'll find
power sockets in the wall for charging mobiles or cameras.

Wooden seats in much older cars without air-con.
However, these cars have
windows that open, which can be an advantage for
photography. The photos below show an ordinary hard
seats car on train LC3 from Hanoi to Lao Cai, similar cars
operate on trains LC4, TN1 & TN2.

Two privately-run sleeping-cars are attached to
trains SE1/SE2/SE3/SE4 between
Hanoi, Hue and Danang, aimed at foreign tourists. The one on SE3 & SE4 is run by
Livitrans, the one on SE1 & SE2 is run by Violette. These cars
have 4-berth air-con soft sleeper compartments similar to the regular Vietnamese
Railways (DSVN) soft sleepers but with upgraded on-board service provided by the
private companies. You can book 4 places to have sole or dual occupancy on a whole
4-berth compartment if you like. Both companies are good with very
little to choose between them, as their prices and sleeper compartments are
virtually identical.
Feedback & current
photos would be appreciated.

Most of the tourists
in these Livitrans cars leave or join the train at Hué, leaving you with
little competition for the handful of opening windows in the
corridor to photograph the superb scenery along the coast and
over the Hai Van Pass between Hué and Danang.

Note that at busy times, for example Tet & high summer, these Livitrans &
Violette cars may
run attached to trains SE5/SE6 instead of SE1/SE2/SE3/SE4, so check when booking.

Fares: Livitrans &
Violette charge similar or even identical fares: Around US$75 one-way per
person from Hanoi to Hue or US$85 Hanoi to Danang, travelling in 4-berth
air-conditioned soft sleepers.

How to buy tickets:
You can easily book Livitrans or Violette tickets online at either
www.baolau.com
or12Go.Asia- just look for the Livitrans or Violette logos rather than VR logo in the search
results.

The Man in Seat 61 says, :Livitrans and Violette now use exactly the
same smartly-refurbished '5-star' air-con soft sleepers that Vietnamese Railways
(DSVN) themselves use on the SE1/2/3/4 trains, just compare the photos below
with the photo of a refurbished regular
DSVN soft sleeper above. But they charge twice the price!
So if you're
on a budget you might as well stick with the regular DSVN soft sleepers.
The difference is in the on-board service such as table lamps, bespoke
bedding, complimentary snacks and so on, and of course the
companies staff the sleepers with their own people. You'll be travelling
with fellow westerners in these tourist sleepers rather than real Vietnamese
travellers, which you might see as an advantage or disadvantage depending on your
point of view..."

Golden
Trains, Saigon to Nha Trang...

The
privately-run Golden Trains sleeping-car is a cut above
the regular Vietnamese railways sleepers between Saigon
(HCMC) and the beach resorts of Nha Trang. It runs
attached to the regular SNT1/SNT2 overnight train,
see the
timetable above. It is similar to the Livitrans & Violette 4-berth
sleepers shown above.

How to buy tickets: You can buy Golden Trains tickets at
www.baolau.com
or 12Go.Asia
- look for the Golden Trains logo rather than the VR logo in the search
results.

This 9-minute video shows the 1,079 mile journey from Hanoi to Hue, Danang &
Saigon on trains SE1 and SE3, showing the scenery, the food, the Livitrans
sleeper from Hanoi to Danang and the regular DSVN soft sleeper from Danang to
Saigon. The video was made before the SE1 & SE3 were re-equipped with the
smartly-refurbished cars in 2015 & 2016.

A taxi from Danang station to
Hoi An costs around 300,000 dong (US$13) depending on your negotiation skills.
There are always taxis waiting.

Bus 01 runs every 20 minutes
between 05:00 & 17:30 every day, fare 20,000 dong + 10,000 dong for bags
over 10Kg. To take the bus, leave Danang station, cross the
square and go into Hoang Hoa Tham road. At the next intersection, turn left
into Le Duan street. The bus stop will be on your right, ignore the old bus
stop next to house number
299, it is currently (temporarily?) moved to outside the shop at number 151 Le
Duan street, indicated by a blue bus sign (See location map).
Bus number 1 is coloured yellow & runs to Hoi An every 20-30 minutes.
Board through the back door and take a seat. The conductor will come
through to collect your fare. Have a 20,000 dong note handy (or 30,000 if
you've luggage) as he
won’t give change - the official price in May 2017 is 20,000 dong.
Smile and ignore any further requests for money as there is no difference in
ticket price for locals and tourists - it's just 20,000 dong + 10,000 dong for a
bag over 10Kg! The bus reaches Hoi An bus
station in about 1 hour, you can walk the remaining 2 km to Hoi An town
centre.
Further feedback always appreciated.

Take
the Slow Train to Sapa...

Sapa is a hill
station established by the French in 1922, and its beautiful
scenery and colourful local tribal people make it a popular stop
on many visitors' itineraries. The best way to get there is to take the
overnight train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, then transfer the final
38 km (24 miles) from Lo Cai to Sapa by bus, car or
taxi. There are two or three
overnight sleeper trains between Hanoi & Lao Cai, and on these
sleeper trains you can use a regular Vietnamese
Railways soft or hard sleeper or choose from a whole range of
privately-run
sleeping-cars of a higher standard aimed at tourists. The line
from Hanoi to Lao Cai
was built by the French and opened in 1910 as part of the metre-gauge Vietnam to
Kunming railway. The Lao Cai to Kunming section was destroyed landslides in 2002, but onward train
travel from Lao Cai to Kunming is once again possible on a new standard-gauge
railway opened in 2014, see the Hanoi to
Kunming section below. Hanoi to Lao Cai is 296 km (185 miles). The
timetables shown below are compiled from the online timetables on Vietnamese
Railways websites
www.vr.com.vn &
www.gahanoi.com.vn (in
Vietnamese only).
Click here for a
Vietnamese Railways route map.

LC3, LC4: This daytime train no longer operates as from September
2017 onwards.

How much does it cost?

Here are the fares are for
the normal Vietnam Railways carriages.
Prices for the privately-run tourist sleeping-cars
are shown in the next section.

One-way in 000
dong.

Hard
seat

Soft seat

Hard
sleeper

Soft
sleeper

ordinary

air-con

air-con

air-con

air-con

Hanoi to Lao Cai by SP overnight train

-

135

180

295

400

Hanoi to Lao Cai by LC3/LC4 daytime train

116

-

144

-

-

£1 =
approx 27,000 Dong. $1 = 21,500 Dong.

Children aged 0
to 4 travel free, children 5 to 9 get 25% off.
Children 10 & over pay full fare.

Upper berths in fact cost
slightly less than lower berths, but for simplicity only one price per class is
shown above.

Which station in Hanoi?

The trains to Lao Cai depart
from platforms 5 to 10 of Hanoi's main railway station.
In principle, these platforms can be accessed from either the main 'A'
station building on Le Duan street or from the 'B' station building on Tran Quay
Cap street on the far side of the tracks. However, the check-in desks for
some private sleeper operators are at the B station, others are at the A
station, so you need to go to the right one. And sometimes you'll find the
doors from the 'A' station onto the platforms locked so cannot always walk
across if you go to the wrong one.

The check-in & voucher exchange desks for
Livitrans, Violette, Victoria Express and Fanxipan are all now in the 'A' station on Le Duan street, and passengers are let onto the platforms from that
side of the tracks. The Victoria Express has its own waiting lounge at
Hanoi A station, go up the escalators and turn left. The Orient Express &
Sapally desks are at the 'B' station.

However, it's a good idea to
confirm with your operator which station - 'A' or 'B' - you should use as there
have been changes over the last few years, that
even confuses some taxi drivers or railway staff. Make sure your taxi driver knows
which station you want. Map of Hanoi showing stations.

Buy tickets online...

12Go.Asiaorwww.baolau.com sell tickets for the regular Vietnamese Railways sleepers
and also for the privately-run
sleeping-cars operated by Fansipan, Orient Express, Sapaly (three of the
best companies, see below),
King Express, Chapa Express & Victoria Express.

www.baolau.com
now lets you select your exact seats or berths from a plan showing which seats &
berths are available, so you can make sure you're all in the same compartment
together. This feature works for Vietnamese Railways seats & sleepers (but
not the privately-run sleepers) as long as you book more than 72 hours ahead.

Buy tickets at the station...

You can buy your
ticket
at
the station when you get to Vietnam, assuming you want tickets for the
regular Vietnamese Railways seats or sleepers, not tickets for the
high-quality tourist sleepers. Tickets to Lao Cai can be
bought either at Hanoi's main station ticket office (easiest to reach), or at
the 'B' station on the far side of the tracks which has its own ticket office.

Apart
from peak holiday periods such as
Tet
(Vietnamese new year, in late January or early February), it's not difficult to book a
soft sleeper a few days in advance, especially if you can be a bit
flexible over your exact choice of train or departure date. On weekdays
you may find berths available even the day before, at weekends berths can be
harder to get as that's when the locals travel.

At ticket offices, you pay
in Vietnamese Dong, US dollars are not generally accepted.
If you're sure of your itinerary and it's important
to be on a specific train on a specific date, then you can pre-book by
email with a travel agency as shown below.

Traveller Rob
Damen travelled from Hanoi to Lao Cai and back:
"We just went to Hanoi station 2.5 hours before departure and
had no problem buying tickets. We bought them at the small
ticket window in the waiting area, for the price stated on the
boards at the station. Our train
arrived about 45 minutes before departure so we had plenty of time
to get comfy in our beds. Back from Lao Cai to Hanoi we took the
daytime train [this no longer operates] and we were able to arrange soft seats. In
order to get the correct tickets I used your shortlist of
Vietnamese words and made a note that I gave to the lady at the
ticket window. She looked a bit surprised but she got the
message so we got two soft seats for 168,000 dong each.
The ride took 11 hours which was quite long and we had a lot of
young children in the coach so it was rather noisy. The
views from the train are not spectacular but that was ok, as we
passed time playing games like yahtzee and some card games.
We arrived right on time at Hanoi Station.

Traveller Jens
Kupsch travelled on the daytime LC4 train: "We
crossed the border from China around 07:30, and bought tickets
to Hanoi on train LC4 at Lao Cai station about an hour ahead of
departure. It didn't seem to be a problem."

Lao Cai to Sapa is about 38 km (24 miles) and the road journey takes about 50
minutes by bus, shared minibus taxi or private car on a scenic winding road up
into the hills. If you have pre-booked a hotel the best idea might be to
ask them to arrange your transfer. But don't worry if you don't have a
transfer arranged, on arrival at Lao Cai you'll be besieged by offers of a
transfer to Sapa by minibus or taxi.

A ticket for the regular bus from Lao Cai to Sapa costs around 28,000 dong
($1.50). These red-and-yellow buses leave regularly from the top of the
car park outside the station, next to the big sign giving times & prices.

Alternatively,
a seat in a shared minibus taxi costs about 50,000 dong ($2.50) per person, or a private
car about
US$25 per vehicle.

On the way back, the shared minibus taxis all leave from
outside the Sapa church, running to no fixed schedule, just filling
up with passengers and leaving when full. You'll need to leave
Sapa around 17:00-17:30 to meet the trains, to allow for any delays on
the road down. Or you can arrange a transfer back to Lao Cai
direct from your
hotel, ask at reception.

The
train to Lao Cai & Sapa in pictures...

Hanoi 'B' station on the far side of the tracks from
Hanoi main ('A') station, accessed from Tran Quay Cap
street. In the evening the B station comes alive as several busy sleeper trains
carrying both Vietnamese and western tourists head north to Lao Cai...

In addition to the regular Vietnamese Railways
(Duong Sat Viet Nam = DSVN) sleepers &
seats, overnight trains SP1/2/3/4 between Hanoi & Lao Cai convey a
bewildering range of privately-run sleeping-cars aimed at tourists. Before
forking out $34 for a bed in a privately-run sleeper rather than $18 for a bed in a
regular Vietnamese Railways air-con soft sleeper, read the advice below...

All these private operators offer
berths in shared 4-berth soft sleeper compartments. A few also offer
berths in 2-berth sleeper compartments, which basically means a 4-berth compartment
with the two upper berths unused, for more or less double the price. If
the allocation of 2-berth compartments has sold out you can simply pay for all 4
berths in a 4-berth, the price is pretty much the same.

The privately-run sleepers all
have air-conditioning, fresh clean bedding, complimentary mineral water and (in
some cases) snacks, and clean western-style toilets. These private
sleepers are all very comfortable, just remember that this is still Vietnam with
Vietnamese standards, you'll enjoy the trip more if you don't turn up with
unrealistic expectations of 5-star western-style luxury for $35! Most of
these private tourist sleeping-cars run attached to train SP1/SP2, though one or
two (notably Sapaly) are attached to SP3/SP4.

Is paying more for a privately-run
sleeper worth it?

Until about 2015, the various
private sleeping-cars had remodelled interiors a cut above the regular
Vietnamese Railways (DSVN) soft sleepers, and some were nicer than others.
For example, many had smartly wood-panelled interiors instead of the dated
formica in DSVN's own sleepers. And the private cars were all painted in
the operator's own colours and branding, which made for a colourful train.

But in 2015 DSVN replaced its own
cars with more modern air-conditioned sleeping-cars and revoked the operating
licences for the private operators' remodelled older cars. The private
operators have had to lease the new type of DSVN sleeping-car, with interiors
exactly the same as those now used by DSVN themselves, see the photos below.
And the private car exteriors are now painted in the same red white & blue
colours as DSVN's own cars. No more private branding, other than a sticker
in the window stating who operates the car.

So has that sunk in? If you
pay $33 for a bed in a privately-run sleeper, you get exactly the same type
of compartment with exactly the same décor as if you had paid $18 to
travel in a regular Vietnamese Railways soft sleeper.

So what's the difference?
The private cars are staffed by the operator's own staff. There's usually
a vase of flowers on the table, and some small complimentary bottles of water.
Bedding is provided by the operator, so may be branded and maybe a bit
better than the regular bedding in the DSVN cars. Of course, you'll end up
travelling with other western tourists rather than actual Vietnamese people,
which you may consider an advantage or disadvantage depending on your point of
view. And the private cars may be kept slightly cleaner than the
regular cars.

To quote one recent traveller,
"I had a good look at both the SP3 & SP1. The tourist cars were easily
identified because of the vase of plastic flowers and the complimentary bottles
of water. But for all of them, everything else was identical to the VR [=DSVN] soft
sleeper cars – cabin, bunks, sheets, pillows, etc."

Which private operator should you choose?
As all the car interiors and exteriors are now identical, there's not a huge amount to choose between the
various different
private operators other than price - which is also pretty similar between
operators - and the 'extras' each operator claims to offer, which frankly are
also pretty much the same.

How much does it cost?
A bed in a privately-run sleeper typically costs
$34-$36 one-way in a shared 4-berth sleeper or $70-$79 per
person for travel in a 2-berth sleeper. However, the best
operators are usually acknowledged to be Fanxipan and Orient
Express (both on train
SP1/2) and Sapaly Express (on train SP3/4). If you use one of these
private sleepers, feedback
is always appreciated.

Can I buy all 4 berths in a
compartment to have a room to ourselves? Yes, if you insist, if the
very few compartments allocated for 2-berth occupancy are sold out as they often
are. But meeting fellow tourists and talking over a beer into the night is
great fun. Would I recommend paying double to miss all the fun and sit in
glorious isolation? No!

How to buy tickets: You
can book Fanxipan, Orient Express, Sapaly, King Express, Chapa Express &
Livitrans online at
www.baolau.com
or at
12Go.Asia, two reliable train & bus ticketing agencies,
see the section above. Just run
an enquiry between Hanoi and Lao Cai, then look for the logos in the search
results.

If you're
already in
Vietnam, you can book these tourist sleepers via local travel
agencies, but not at the station, although there's a ticket window for the Ratraco sleepers to Lao Cai
in the ticket hall at the 'B' station.

This is a cut above the other tourist
trains, in fact it's the most luxurious way to reach Sapa with
wood-panelled 'orient express' style carriages, but you can only use it if you're staying at the luxurious and
expensive (but excellent)
Victoria Hotel in Sapa. The train runs daily except Saturdays,
consisting of two deluxe sleeping-cars attached
to train SP3/SP4. Prices around US$140 round trip per person
($160 including meals in the restaurant car) in 4-berth or $220
per person ($250 with meals) in 2-berth. One-way fares are
only about 25% less than returns, so buy a return ticket if you're
coming back to Hanoi. See
www.victoriahotels.asia/en/victoria-express-train
for details. The
hotel can arrange a shuttle bus or private car transfer from the
station.

The Victoria Express
train to Lao Cai for Sapa...

VIP 2-berth sleeper...

Standard 4-berth sleeper...

Watch the
video: Hanoi to Lao Cai by Orient Express...

Note that this shows the earlier wood-panelled incarnation of the Orient
Express, before the introduction of the new standard sleeping-cars across all
private operators as well as Vietnamese Railways themselves. But it gives
you a good idea of the trip...

The seaside resort of Phan Thiet is at the end of
a 15km branch line from Binh Thuan, a junction station on the main
Saigon-Danang-Hue-Hanoi Reunification line, formerly known as Muong Man.
One or two direct
trains run from Saigon to Phan Thiet every day, shown in the timetable below.
When you arrive at Phan Thiet station you'll find plenty of buses & taxis waiting to
take you to the popular resort of Mui Né, 24km northeast of Phan Thiet, a 25-30
minute drive.
Alternatively, you can take any mainline
train from Saigon to Binh Thuan station and then a taxi to Pan Thiet (15.7km) or Mui Né
(38km).
Click for Vietnam train route map.

Saigon ► Phan Thiet

Phan
Thiet ► Saigon

Train
number:

SPT2

PT4*

Train
number:

SPT1

PT3*

Saigon station

depart

06:40

17:40

Phan Thiet

depart

13:15

22:55

Bin Thuan

arr/dep

10:04

21:16

Bin Thuan

arr/dep

13:30

23:13

Phan Thiet

arrive

10:17

21:36

Saigon station

arrive

17:01

02:53

* Train PT3/4 only runs on selected
holiday dates, you can see if it's running on a given date using
www.baolau.com.

Train SPT1/SPT2 has the following
classes of seat:

- regular air-con soft seats in a
regular car, shown as NML when booking on
www.baolau.com.

- regular air-con soft seats in a
double-decker car, shown as A2TL when booking on
www.baolau.com.

- VIP soft seats, air-con, arranged
as around tables for four shown as NML4V when booking on
www.baolau.com.

Booking tips: The
regular soft seats car is fine The double-deck car only opens for booking
closer to departure date, and has less space per person that the regular car
even though it's the same price. The NML4V VIP soft seats car fills
quickly soon after booking opens, it can be difficult to get seats together if
there are several of you. The premium soft seats car was introduced in
Sept 2016, also a good choice.

Bus or taxi connection Phan
Thiet station to Mui Né: Bus
number 9 (the red bus) runs from the road outside Phan Thiet station to Mui Né
every 20 minutes from 05:30 until 20:00, bus fare 6,000 dong ($0.30) The bus runs the length of Mui Né
stopping at various points all across the resort. Alternatively, there are
plenty of taxis, it's a 25-35 minute drive and will cost in the region of
230,000 dong ($12)

How much does it cost?

Saigon to Phan Thiet by train

Air-con regular soft seat 130,000 dong (£5 or $8)

Air-con VIP deluxe seat
149,000 dong

Phan Thiet to Mui Ne by bus

Minimal, but exact fare not known.

Phan Thiet to Mui Ne by taxi

Around 250,000 dong (£8 or $13)

How to buy tickets:
Buy tickets at the station or at Saigon's city centre ticket office
as shown here or book online at
www.baolau.com.

Alternative: If the
times of these
trains don't suit you, simply take any mainline train between Saigon & Bin Thuan shown
in the main Reunification line timetable above
for around 120,000 dong (£4 or $6), then catch a taxi between Bin Thuan
& Phan Thiet (15.7km) or Mui Ne (38km), cost to Mui Ne around 500,000 dong (£15
or $24), taxi journey around 1 hour. You can also book Saigon to Bin Thuan
trains at
www.baolau.com.

Traveller Andrew Stewart took
the train from Phan Thiet back to Saigon and comments: "It was a nice
trip. Much better than the bus that I took to get there. So many roadworks on
that road. It took 8hrs and 30mins from Saigon on the bus."

Bus number 9 links Phan Thiet
&
Mui Né every 20 minutes. Be prepared for the bus to stop some 20m away
from the bus stop sign!
Photos courtesy of
Alistair Weaver...

Hanoi, Hue or Danang to/from Phan
Thiet or Mui Né...

Simply take a train from Hanoi, Hue
or Danang to Binh Thuan station
as shown in the timetable above.
Then use a local taxi between Bin Thuan station and Phan Thiet (15.7km) or Mui
Ne (38km). A taxi between Bin Thuan and Mui Ne costs around
500,000 dong (£15 or $24) and takes around an hour.

These
Hanoi-Haiphong
trains have air-conditioned soft seats (see the photo of the
poster below advertising travel to Haiphong in these comfortable
air-con cars), air-conditioned hard seats, and ordinary hard seats
in much older cars. Hanoi to Haiphong is
102 km (63 miles).

How much does it cost?

Hanoi to Haiphong

Air-con soft seat 70,000 dong (£2.50 or $3)

Air-con hard seat 60,000 dong (£.502 or $3)

Hanoi Long Bien station
is 3km northeast of Hanoi main station, immediately south of the huge
steel Long Bien bridge over the Red River (which was a target
for American bombers on several occasions during the Vietnamese
war). The small road
outside the station is only accessible to pedestrians, bicycles and motorbikes, not cars,
so if your taxi drops you on the main road by the river, don't
worry, it's just a 100 yard walk up the side road and round the bend to the station.
Map of Hanoi showing main & Long Bien stations

How to buy tickets: Buy tickets locally, at the
station. No advance reservation is necessary.

Ferries to Cat Ba Island: Hydrofoils take 45 minutes
and leave Haiphong ferry terminal at 08:50 & 09:00.
Returning, hydrofoils leave Cat Ba ferry terminal at 06:45 &
15:00. Alternatively there are ships taking 2 hours, with
departures from Haiphong ferry terminal at 06:30 & 12:30.
Returning, the ships leave Cat Ba Island at 05:45 & 12:30.
Simply buy your ferry ticket at the ticket offices at the port,
the fare is around 100,000 dong (£4 or $6). Cat Ba town is a
half hour bus ride from where the ships arrive, but the hydrofoils
arrive at a pier near Cat Ba town.

The beautiful Halong Bay is on many visitors' lists of Vietnam highlights to
visit. There are two ways to travel there from Hanoi:

Option 1, take a train from Hanoi to Haiphong
as shown above, then use local
buses between Haiphong and Halong.

Option 2, a direct train runs between Hanoi and Halong as shown below.
This is a regular Vietnamese Railways train, not a tourist train, although there
have been abortive attempts to run a tourist train between Hanoi & Halong in the
last few years. This loss-making regular train was reported in the
Vietnamese media as slated for withdrawal in December 2013, but it's still in
operation, a rustic 4-carriage train used by the locals and an experience! Feedback
would be appreciated...

Update: This train was daily, but was reduced to Fridays-only from
April 2018.

Hanoi ► Halong

Halong ► Hanoi

Yen Vien station is
in the suburbs of Hanoi, you'll need a taxi given the early start from Hanoi,
although buses 10 or 54 run there from Long Bien bus station during the day.
Map showing location of Yen Vien station.

Fare:
70,000 dong (£2.50, $3), hard class seats only.

How to buy tickets:
You can easily check these times & buy tickets online in English at reliable ticketing
agency
www.baolau.com.

Traveller Matthias Meuller report (December 2016): "The train
runs! It was one of my best trips ever. It's a train for women who
buy fruits, vegetables, tomatoes, herbs, chicken and so on cheap in the
mountains and sell it on at a little market in Halong. They take the goods
by train from Mao Khe to Halong. No tourists there! You sit for two
hours in the market and they want that you eat, drink, hold their babies.
It's wonderful, yet none of the travel agencies in Hanoi want to believe that
this train exists. I rode back to Hanoi with the train. It takes 6
hours but it's wonderful, slung in a hammock, talking with the girls from the
market, who count their money and play cards. Buses link central Hanoi
with Yen Vien station every 10 minutes."

Traveller Graham Phelan reports (October 2016): "I took this train
in October as I love train travel and didn’t want to take the tourist bus to
Halong City - I would do anything to avoid tourists! I took a taxi in the
morning to Yen Vien station from my place in Hanoi, it wasn’t expensive just
166,000 VND (about €7) and cheaper if you’re leaving from Hanoi Old Town.
I was absolutely wrecked getting the morning train so I missed a lot of the
landscapes on the way to Halong City but I enjoyed them on the way back!
People have to be aware that this train is not a comfortable train, you have to
sit on a wooden seat! So make sure you bring some entertainment, a small
cushion if you can find one, some toilet roll and most importantly food!
This trip showed me the real Vietnam and it was a massive culture shock but I
don’t regret it at all. Also make sure to get your hotel or wherever
you’re staying to book a taxi for you at the station as there are absolutely
none there. On arrival back into Hanoi buses do run to go to the main city bus
station, the cost is 7,000 VND, about €0.25. Or you can just do as I did and
find a taxi on the street since they’re so cheap."

Traveller Ferry Quast reports (September 2016): "Yes, the
Hanoi-Halong train is running. It consists of 4 standard-gauge cars. These
cars are some of the oldest I've ever taken. One had bench seats, the
other 3 were empty and aimed at passengers with loads of vegetables and fruit
[see the photo below]. For the first 2-3 hours the train was quite busy,
but for the rest of the trip we were almost alone on the train. It was
very slow and we think that we never had more than 25 or 30 km/h. Great
experience if you want to get in touch with locals. In contrast to the
train, Ha Long's train station was the newest I've seen in Vietnam.
Reaching downtown Hanoi after arrival in Hanoi Vien Yen station shouldn't be a
problem, there are still buses - until 10pm or so as locals told us."

One of the 3 cargo cars on
the Hanoi to Halong train. Be assured one car does have seats!

A comfortable train service
between Hanoi & Nanning, Guilin, Beijing...

There is a safe,
comfortable & affordable overnight sleeper train between Beijing &
Nanning every day, connecting with an equally safe & comfortable daily
sleeper train between Nanning, Guilin & Beijing. And twice a week,
these two trains convey a direct soft sleeping-car between Hanoi and Beijing.
You can also use the Hanoi-Nanning sleeper train in conjunction with direct
Nanning-Shanghai or Nanning-Guangzhou (for Hong Kong) trains. After a
brief spell in early 2015 reduced to twice a week, the Hanoi-Nanning train is
now back to running every day, and Beijing-Hanoi through cars have been
restored, twice a week.

A through sleeping-car with
36 soft sleeper berths runs direct Beijing-Hanoi leaving Beijing West on
Thursdays & Sundays and leaving Hanoi on Tuesdays & Fridays, taking 2
nights. This through sleeper is attached to the Z5 then T8701
southbound, and the T8702 & Z6 northbound.

So you can travel between
Beijing and Hanoi any day of the week with a change of train at Nanning and
two separate tickets OR you can travel between Beijing and Hanoi in a direct
soft sleeper twice a week with just one ticket.

Note that
e-visas don't seem to be valid for entering or leaving Vietnam by rail via Dong
Dang (only for arriving or leaving at Dong Dang by road), so you either need a
regular visa or use the 15-day visa exempt arrangement if available for your
nationality.

Beijing,
Nanning ► Hanoi

Hanoi ► Nanning, Beijing

Train Z5, runs daily, soft & hard
sleepers, restaurant

Through cars:

Train MR1 / T8702, runs daily, soft sleepers only.

Through cars:

Beijing West

depart

15:45 Day 1

Thur & Sun

Hanoi Gia Lam station

depart

21:20
Day 1

Tue & Fri

Guilin

depart

11:36 Day 2

Fri & Mon

Dong
Dang, Vietnam border

arrive

01:55 day 2

Wed & Sat

Nanning

arrive

15:40 Day 2

Fri & Mon

Dong
Dang

depart

02:50 Day 2

Wed & Sat

Train T8701 / MR2, runs
daily.

|

Pingxiang, Chinese border

arrive

04:31 Day 2

Wed & Sat

Nanning

depart

18:10
Day 2

Fri & Mon

Pingxiang

depart

06:20
Day 2

Wed & Sat

Pingxiang, Chinese border

arrive

22:01
Day 2

Fri & Mon

Nanning

arrive

10:10
Day 2

Wed & Sat

Pingxiang

depart

22:41
Day 2

Fri & Mon

Train Z6, runs daily, soft & hard sleepers & restaurant

|

Dong
Dang, Vietnam border

arrive

23:22 Day 2

Fri & Mon

Nanning

depart

11:00
Day 2

Wed & Sat

Dong
Dang

depart

01:00
Day 3

Sat & Tues

Guilin

arrive

14:22 Day 2

Wed & Sat

Hanoi Gia Lam station

arrive

05:20
Day 3

Sat & Tues

Beijing West

arrive

09:55 Day 3

Thur & Sun

Beijing to Hanoi is
2,996km or 1,861 miles.
Nanning to Hanoi is 396km. How to buy tickets.

How much does it cost?

Southbound fares...

(1) Beijing to Nanning
costs RMB 752 ($124 or £80) in a soft sleeper or RMB 473 ($78 or £50) in a
hard sleeper, bought at the station or online with small extra fee from
www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains.

(2) Nanning to Hanoi costs RMB 248 (£28 or $38)
in a soft sleeper bought at the station or $35 + booking fee if you pre-book from outside
China through agency
www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains.

(2) Nanning to Beijing
costs RMB 752 ($124 or £80) in a soft sleeper or RMB 473 ($78 or £50) in a
hard sleeper using a domestic Chinese ticket.

(3) An international
through ticket from Hanoi to Beijing costs CHF 293 (about $294) converted into
dong, in a soft sleeper.

In Hanoi, a metered
taxi between Hanoi old quarter & Gia Lam station costs around VND 100,000 (£3.50 or $5).

How to buy tickets online...

To pre-book southbound
tickets...

To buy tickets from Beijing,
Guilin or Nanning to Hanoi in advance from outside China,
you can book online from reliable ticketing agencies
www.baolau.com
or
www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains.
On Chinahighlights you'll find Hanoi listed under 'G' as Gia Lam, Hanoi.

On days when the direct through
car runs Beijing to Hanoi you can book Beijing to Gia Lam, Hanoi as one ticket.
If you want to travel on the other 5 days of the week, simply book Beijing to
Nanning on train Z5 then buy another separate ticket from Nanning to Gia Lam,
Hanoi on train T8701.

To pre-book northbound
tickets...

To buy tickets from Hanoi to Nanning,
Guilin or Beijing, use these links to reliable Vietnamese online ticketing
agency Baolau.com:

You can also book through another reliable
Vietnamese ticketing agency,
www.vietnamimpressive.com
who can have tickets waiting for you at any Hanoi hotel or you can collect from
their offices in Hanoi.

It might be
cheaper to book solely the Hanoi to Nanning train online, then buy your Nanning to Beijing ticket at
the domestic rate through
www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains,
but remember that you have to allow time to collect your ticket at the
station in Nanning, and there isn't a huge amount of time between trains to
do this is there's a delay or long queues at the station.

The sleeper train between Nanning
& Hanoi...

This is the Nanning to Hanoi
train at Nanning
station. Below right, a comfortable
4-berth soft sleeper compartment, with two upper and two
lower berths, curtains, fresh clean sheets & pillows, and
small table. Interior photo courtesy of Chris at
www.myeggnoodles.com.
See more photos of this train here. If you get any photos of this
train, inside or out, please get in touch.

Hanoi Gia Lam station...

Gia
Lam station (see
location map) is a tiny suburban station across the
river in northern Hanoi, a 20 minute taxi ride from the main
station. Why does the train to Nanning start here?
Its Chinese carriages are standard gauge 4' 8½", as used in
Europe, China & North America. Vietnam's railways
are metre gauge, just over 3'. A third rail has been laid as
far as Gia Lam station, making the tracks dual gauge, allowing the Chinese train to run that
far but no further. You can see the three rails in the
photo above...

Buying your ticket to
Nanning, Guilin or Beijing:
At Hanoi
main ('A') station on Le Duan street, go to the ticket counter for foreigners &
international trains, open 07:00-17:30 daily. You will need to
show your passport and a valid visa for China. You can pay in
Vietnamese dong or (reportedly) US dollars. Credit cards are
not accepted, even though there's a MasterCard sign.

If you're going to Nanning, it can help to know that
Nanning is 'Nam Ninh' in Vietnamese.

Incidentally, Vietnamese Railways
cannot book domestic trains within China, so don't bother asking for onward
tickets from Nanning to Shanghai or Guangzhou or wherever.

Getting a Chinese visa
in Hanoi...

You'll need a visa to enter China, and indeed
you will need to show your Chinese visa at Hanoi station when buying
a train ticket to Beijing. In 2010 it was reported that the Chinese
embassy in Hanoi wouldn't issue visas for anyone who wasn't a
Vietnamese citizen or resident but in 2012 a later report says they
now will. If they won't, either get your visa in your home country before you
leave, or arrange your Chinese visa in Hanoi through a suitable
travel agency such as
www.hanoibackpackershostel.com.

Traveller Peter Day reports: Tickets
(soft class only) are available from Window 7 at Hanoi main
railway station. There is a system in place where you
get a number which indicates your place in the line - locals
ignore it, you should too. Tickets are available to purchase
in cash only, Vietnamese dong only as far as one could tell.
You go to the window first and the lady tells you how much,
then you go get the cash and return to buy the tickets.
The cost of two tickets to Guilin was over 6 million dong,
clearly Beijing would be more - getting that amount of dong
out of ATMs is problematic because of limits on each
transaction and number of daily withdrawals allowed. We had
to use 2 cards. They check you have visas for China.

Traveller Alex Hartland reports: "I booked my
Hanoi-Beijing train ticket yesterday at Hanoi station.
I was sent from window 10 to window 1 to window 6 and
finally window 8. The woman at window 8 spoke pretty
good English, but I don't think it's the standard window for
Hanoi to Beijing bookings. The paperwork took a while
to process (about 45 minutes) and the final cost was
4,635,000 dong. She told me I could pay in dollars if I
wanted to, but again not sure if this is standard procedure.
She checked my passport & Chinese visa, too."

Buying tickets in person in
Beijing...

Buying a train
ticket to Hanoi in Beijing... This is the agency in
Beijing where Laurent & Chris both bought their train tickets to
Hanoi

You can't buy an
international ticket to Hanoi at any Beijing station, or at normal ticket
outlets either. But here's how you can buy in person in Beijing.
If you have any further
feedback, please email me!

Traveller Laurent Fintoni reports: "I was
told to go to Bei Feng Wo Lu (a street near Beijing West
station) and look for a shop opposite the Tian You hotel. So
I would say for anyone else, the easiest might be to get a
cab or directions to Tian You hotel on Bei Feng Wo Lu.
Opposite the hotel is what looks like a travel agent, though
when I went it had the shutters pulled down - however it was
open, not quite sure why that was. The shop sign is blue,
and you can tell you found it as there is a small window on
the side of the shop's main doors which says they sell train
tickets. However, you want the main shop not the window.
Once in there if you tell them you want to buy Beijing to
Hanoi tickets, I had a sentence written in Chinese for me,
she pulls out what seems to be the same form that Que
Clothier mentions. The woman speaks no English, just point
at the answers on the form and she does it all for you. I
was charged only 1086 RMB without a 50 RMB charge, but not
quite sure why as she answered in Chinese when I asked her
if she wanted the charge. Her form mentions the
charge, making the price 1166, the same as Chris Emmerson
reported. She'll also point at a calendar and ask for
dates as well as how many tickets. There are about 3
banks within 100 to 200 metres of the shop on Bei Feng Wo
Lu, all do currency exchange and have ATMs however none seem
to change Travellers Cheques so be careful. Once you
pay her it's all done, it was really easy, the trickiest
part is finding the shop, but with the Tian You Hotel being
quite big (and having its name written in English on the
front in big letters) it shouldn't be too difficult."

Traveller Chris "Mzungu" Holden reports (2011): "I got my
tickets from the same place as Laurent Fintoni [see above]
got his. It was easy to find, took me about 30mins to
get the tickets from a helpful and friendly chap who spoke
no English but pointed to the booking forms and a calendar
when needed. It cost me RMB 2,200 (2150+50 commission)
from memory."

Buying tickets in person in Nanning...

Tickets are sold at the
station reservations office at Nanning main station, counter 16, but
according to one recent report now counter 1. It's not difficult to
get places even on the day.

Travellers reports...

Traveller Phillippa Smith reports (2018): "We
bought our tickets at Ga Ha Noi about 10 days before travel. Our travel
dates were a week before Chinese new year and so tickets were very limited
meaning to had to book the train 2 days before our ideal travel date, proving
quite a squeeze on our 30 days visa allowance in China. We didn't have to
show our visa for China to buy the tickets. In fact, we had to buy the
train tickets to show as proof of entry into China to get our Visas at the Hanoi
Embassy. Generally speaking the train is comfortable and is of a higher
standard than sleeper trains across Thailand. We had two beds in a 4-berth
compartment and were lucky to have it all to ourselves for the whole journey.
The compartment had a lockable door. The train stopped at Dong Dang [the
border station] at 1am where all passengers had to alight with their baggage
which is then x-rayed and you are stamped out of Vietnam. This took around
45 minutes. Back on the train about an hour later we stopped at the
Chinese border station to go through immigration into China. We got off
the train again with all our luggage, and a Chinese official scanned the
passengers looking for foreigners. We were the only non-Chinese and he
made a bee-line for us! He took our passports away for 5 minutes as we continued
to queue, then returned them to us and asked us the complete an entry form
before going though immigration. We were back on the train within 20
minutes. During the time the train was in the station and shortly before,
the toilets on board are all locked so it's a good idea to go before the train
pulls into a station. The following morning we were treated to some
beautiful mountain views and the sight of Chinese workers harvesting the bamboo
by the side of the tracks. We arrived at Nanning station right on time
before catching a bullet train to Guilin...

Traveller Jim Ryder went Beijing to Hanoi: "I got my Beijing to Hanoi tickets at the same blue fronted shop
featured in "Buying in Beijing" section [pictured above right]. I had
decided at 9:00am on a Thursday to leave Beijing to Hanoi and thought I would
take my chances at finding the shop and getting onboard. It was not
difficult to find following your instructions and once inside the building the
lady agreed to get me a ticket on the 3:00 pm train that very day. It was
on the pricey side at 2000 Yuan but there were no other choices apparent.
After a few moments I was out and hopped a public bus 2 stops to the train
station. My ticket was a second class, lower berth exactly as I requested.
However when I went to board the train there seemed to be a lot of discussion.
My ticket was different from everyone else's. They put me an empty car except
for one other passenger, my roommate and carefully watched us and escorted us
everywhere we went. It very much like VIP service as my roommate agreed. His
ticket was exactly like mine. They had us in the 1st lounge during our
wait in Nanning and stationed a guard right next to us. All else was
normal, beautiful and fun.'

Traveller Richard Brown
travelled Nanning to Hanoi: "We have just arrived in
Ha Noi this morning, 30 December 2014. Several agents online offer booking
services but most sources we could speak to told us the Nanning-Hanoi tickets
must be booked in Nanning. I am not sure that is the case but you
definitely have to go to the train station to pick them up as they are not the
typical Chinese train tickets. They issued one ticket for the two of us.
Tickets are printed on multi-carbon paper using an antique pin-printer.

We can confirm that at Nanning
main station, counter 1 is currently the one where you get the Ha Noi tickets.
It is also labelled "English Speaking Counter" but the clerk could not speak
English; she did get another clerk with reasonable English skills and, despite
our Mandarin deficit, things went smoothly. At least at this time of the
year, I believe you could get tickets on the day of travel. We booked our
tickets on Saturday around 6:00pm for the Monday train. They offered us
tickets for the next day and there were probably berths available on Saturday
but they close sales for same day tickets at around 4:00pm.

On Monday the train included
several carriages with seats numbered 1-15 and then a separate string at the end
numbered confusingly 4-1. The end string were the sleeper cars. Only one
of these carriages had passengers so I suspect there were plenty of empty
berths. The sleeper carriages were the only ones that made the trip to Ha Noi
from Pingxiang at the border. The attendant in our carriage was selling
water and the ubiquitous cups of dried noodles. Boiling water was of course
free.

We arrived at Pingxiang at
10:00pm and the English announcement said we would be there for an hour and 40
minutes. Immigration and customs was routine. We all re-entered the carriage
after about 20 minutes and waited. One or two passengers joined us from
Pingxiang. After about two hours we were off to Dong Dang. After 20
minutes we arrived in Vietnam. Clearing immigration and customs took about
45 minutes. Even though it was literally the middle of the night a woman
was changing US$ or RMB to VND and selling sim cards and snacks. The exchange
seemed fair.

The train left Dong Dang and made
no further stops until reaching Ha Noi. I believe that the station we
arrived was different than your site currently reports . I almost certain that
we arrived at Ga Yen Vien Nam; our taxi ride took about 20 minutes and we paid
300,000 VND. We knew were getting ripped off as we were told the "meter
not working" story but we had few options at 6:00am local time. The roughly
US$15 fare should have been about US$7 but we arrived unscathed.

One thing we learned in China is
to expect the unexpected. None of what happened to us may happen tomorrow so
anyone reading this should not take it as the gospel truth. But we found reading
what others had experienced better prepared us for what came our way."

Traveller Steve Mercer reports
from a northbound trip in 2013: "This train was by far the best of them all. There was carpet in
the corridor & compartments. Plus there were free plastic shoes, although 5 sizes too small. Very handy. The taxi dropped us off at the station but I
have to admit it’s not immediately apparent where you go to check in or wait. We
went into the first waiting room, but a guard frantically shouted 'Nanning' at
us and pointed at the
correct waiting room. Boarding the train was very organised. We showed our
passports before getting on and we also gave the Guard our tickets which he
swapped for a credit card size card. We would give this back at the end of the
journey. He then showed us to our berths. It was a good trip with no
interruptions apart from the borders. Just before the Vietnam border we were
woken and told we must take all our bags with us. This border point was a bit disorganised. When you put your bag on the scanner belt it was set up so you
had to turn around and fight your way through the crowd behind you to get to the
other side of the scanner. Then you hand your passport in. It’s not a quick
process as I was waiting for it to be handed back when he looked up and gestured
us to go and sit down. I’m always a bit reluctant to let my passport out of my
sight, but it was all good. They did them in batches and then called your name
out to come and get them. However as we were the only Western foreigners there,
he came and handed them to us. It was then back on the train and off to the
Chinese border. This time someone came round and handed out the immigration
cards for us to fill in than came round again to collect them and our passports.
We got off with all our bags and went into the immigration hall. A bit more
organised this one. I can’t remember but I’m not sure if they were scanned. An
immigration officer did some random checking of the bags though. It was back on
the train and wait for our passports to be returned before heading off to
Nanning. There were no more interruptions."

Traveller Melissa Jacka reports
from a southbound trip in
2013: "Tickets for the Nanning-Hanoi train were only available from
Nanning train station, we got them about 20 hours in advance and following the
advice on Seat 61 we went straight to counter 16 - the queue took about 20
minutes, and we had to show our passports and Vietnamese visa. We had no problem
getting soft sleeper tickets for a Sunday night train. Adults were 190 RMB and
the kids were 90 RMB. As mentioned in earlier advice the beds were
reallocated by the conductors. Dinner in the dining car was simple, but
fresh, tasty, clean and cheep - rice, chicken dish & beer for one was 30 RMB.
The train now leaves at 18:20 and arrives at around 05:30 the next day (but this
includes winding the clock back 1 hour at the border), and includes two stops
where you and your luggage get off the train, the first at about 21:30 and the
second at about 00:30."

Traveller GeekySeb
reports from a Nanning-Hanoi train journey in summer 2010:
"The train starts at 18.45 and the waiting hall is number 1. Thanks
for the advice to use counter 16, it saves a lot of time as this is
the one with no queue. If you don't know about that, you first join
the long queue, then get sent to counter 16, as it happened to
another traveller I met. I booked my ticket on the Saturday
noon for the Monday. I think I understood the Saturday train was
full. We had to leave the train twice, once at around 22.30 to have
our luggage scanned at the Chinese border and get the Chinese exit
stamp, the other two hours later at around 23:30 Vietnamese time to
get the Vietnam stamp and fill in the arrival card. The train
arrived at Gia Lam station at about 5.30 local time. There were
plenty of taxis awaiting and I paid 200,000 VND, far too much I
think! There is some street food available for breakfast in
the street opposite the station and one taxi driver awoke a
shop-owner so I can change money and buy a SIM card."

Traveller Anton Vidgen reports from a Nanning-Hanoi train journey:
"We purchased tickets in Nanning at counter 16 and departed the same
day at 18:15. Soft sleeper cost RMB 334 each. There is a comfortable
waiting room to the far left of the station if you are facing the main
clock. The train only had about 20 passengers in total (exclusively
soft sleeper) so ticket availability did not seem to be an issue. We
arrived in Pingxiang around 20:00 and customs only took 45 mins. We
then arrived in Dong Dang at 23:30 and customs again only took 45
mins. Our Vietnam visas became active on the next day so we were
worried officials would cause a fuss, but we had no problems. We
re-boarded the same comfortable Chinese train which finally arrived in
Hanoi around 5:30am."

Nanning - Hanoi by bus...

If the train is full or you
prefer daytime travel, there are several daily buses between Nanning &
Hanoi, using modern coaches and travelling by day. Buses
reportedly leave Nanning bus station at 08:30. 09:00 & 09:30, journey
time 7-8 hours, fare around RMB 150 (£15 or $25). The scenery is
reported as well worth the trip!

Easily done by train...

It's easy to travel between Hanoi & Hong Kong
by train with
a change of train in Nanning & Guangzhou. You can choose to make the journey
in 2 nights & 1 day using the Hanoi-Nanning sleeper train and a
Nanning-Guangzhou sleeper train, with a day exploring Nanning in between.
Or you can now make the whole trip in under 24 hours using the
Hanoi-Nanning sleeper train then a modern 300km/h high-speed train to Guangzhou
and another high-speed train to Hong Kong. It costs
as little as $86 or so in total one-way, and it's a genuine overland travel experience. Remember that you'll need a visa
for China, so you'll need to satisfy any return/onward ticket
requirements, which is usually more of a logistical headache than the
actual travelling. If you have any more
information including fares for travelling via this route, please
e-mail me.

This is the classic option, taking 2 nights & 1 day in total. The two
sleeper trains save two hotel bills, it gives you a day to explore Nanning, and
is less rushed than the high-speed option below.

Day 1 evening, take the overnight
sleeper train from Hanoi to Nanning, leaving Hanoi Gia Lam station around 21:40
every day and arriving Nanning main station around 10:10 next morning,
see the section above for details.

The
fare is around VND 568,000 ($30) with a comfy soft sleeper berth.

Day 2, spend
most of the day exploring Nanning.

Day 2 evening, travel by overnight train from Nanning to Guangzhou.

There are several possible trains all running every day: Train K1234
leaving Nanning at 17:50 and arriving Guangzhou main station at 07:25 next
morning, train K398 leaving Nanning at 19:15 and arriving Guangzhou main station
at 07:48, and train K1206 leaving Nanning at 22:50 and arriving at Guangzhou
East station at 11:46 next day. All these trains have soft & hard class
sleepers.

The fare is about 285 RMB ($47) in a soft sleeper,
or 184 RMB
($30) in a hard sleeper.

If you arrive at Guangzhou main station, a taxi to Guangzhou East station costs about RMB 30 (£3) or you can take the
well-organised metro with English-language signing from Guangzhou main station
on red line 5 to Guangzhou east station on yellow line 1, for just RMB 4.

Day 3, travel from Guangzhou East (Guangzhou Dong) to
Hong Kong Hung Hom station by
intercity
through train. There are a range of
departures daily, for example one leaves Guangzhou East at 10:37 and arrives at
Hung Hom at or there's one at 14:00 arriving Hung Hom at 15:48. Fare
about HK$190 ($26).

This is the fastest option,
taking less than 24 hours between Hanoi and Hong Kong using 300km/h (186mph) high-speed trains
between Nanning, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. You only have to spend one night
on a sleeper train.

Day 1, evening: Take the overnight
sleeper train from Hanoi to Nanning, leaving Hanoi Gia Lam station around
21:40
every day and arriving Nanning main station around 10:10 next
morning (day 2), see the section above for details.

Fare around VND
568,000 ($30) with a comfy soft sleeper berth.

Day 2, travel from Nanning to
Guangzhou by high-speed train in just a few hours, leaving Nanning main station
on train D3625 at 13:22 and arriving Guangzhou South at 17:22. The fare is
around RMB 172 ($25) in 2nd class or RMB 275 ($40) in 1st class.

Day 2 evening, travel from
Guangzhou to Hong Kong by
high-speed train, leaving
Guangzhou South at 19:08 and arriving Hong Kong West Kowloon
Terminus at 20:08.
Fare about RMB 215 ($31) in 2nd class or RMB 323 ($47) in 1st class.

Hong Kong ► Hanoi classic option...

This is the classic option, taking 2 nights & 1 day in total. The two
sleeper trains save two hotel bills, it gives you a day to explore Nanning, and
is less rushed than the high-speed option below.

Day 1, morning: Take an
intercity
through train from Hong Kong Hung Hom station to Guangzhou East (= Guangzhoudong). There are a range of departures daily, including one leaving Hung
Hom at 11:17 and
arriving Guangzhou East at 12:58. Fare about HK$190 ($28).

If you need to transfer to Guangzhou main station, a taxi from Guangzhou East to Guangzhou
main station
costs about RMB 30, or you can take the well-organised metro with
English-language signing from Guangzhou East on yellow line 1 to Guangzhou main
station on red line 5, for just RMB 4.

Day 1, evening: Travel from Guangzhou to Nanning by comfortable overnight
sleeper train.

There are several trains to choose from. Train K483 leaves Guangzhou main
station at 21:22 and arrives
Nanning at 09:40 next morning. Or train K1208 leaves Guangzhou East at
17:02 arriving Nanning 06:15. Or train K1233 leaves Guangzhou main station
at 19:30 arriving Nanning at 08:10. Soft and hard class sleepers are
available on all these trains.

The fare is about 285 RMB ($47) in a soft sleeper,
or 185 RMB
($30) in a hard sleeper.

Day 2, spend the day exploring Nanning.

Day 2, take the overnight train from Nanning to Hanoi, leaving Nanning main
station every day around 18:10 and arriving
Hanoi Gia Lam station around 05:20 next morning (day 3), see the
section above for details. Soft & hard sleepers available, fare RMB
248 (£25 or $38).

Alternatively, there are also buses between Nanning & Hanoi, reportedly leaving
Nanning bus station at 08:30. 09:00 & 09:30, journey time 7-8 hours, fare around RMB 150 ($25). The scenery is
reported as well worth the trip!

Hong Kong ► Hanoi high-speed option...

This is the fastest option,
taking only 24 hours between Hong Kong and Hanoi using the new 300km/h (186mph)
high-speed train then a sleeper train. You only have to spend one night on
a sleeper train. However, it's a bit rushed as you need to transfer fairly
sharply between stations in both Guangzhou and Nanning, so I'd recommend a taxi
for this.

Day 1, travel from Guangzhou to Nanning by high-speed train in just a few hours,
leaving Guangzhou South at 11:06 on train D3834 and arriving Nanning main
station at 15:15. The fare is around RMB 172 ($25) in 2nd class or RMB 275
($40) in 1st class.

Day 2, take the overnight train from Nanning to Hanoi, leaving Nanning main
station every day around 18:10 and arriving
Hanoi Gia Lam station around 05:20 next morning (day 3), see the
section above for details. Soft & hard sleepers available, fare RMB 248 (£25
or $38). Alternatively, there are several modern buses
from Nanning to Hanoi every morning.

Alternatively, there are also buses between Nanning & Hanoi, reportedly leaving
Nanning bus station at 08:30. 09:00 & 09:30, journey time 7-8 hours, fare around RMB 150 ($25). The scenery is
reported as well worth the trip!

Step 3, book
from Guangzhou to Hong Kong West Kowloon as a second transaction at
www.baolau.com
or
www.china-diy-travel.com with ticket collection at either Nanning or
Guangzhou South stations, obviously it makes sense to pick up your
Nanning-Guangzhou and Guangzhou-HK tickets together in Nanning.

Arranging tickets this way
means you have the necessary proof of entry & exit to apply for a Chinese
visa.

To buy tickets
starting in Hanoi, in person...

You can easily buy a Hanoi to Nanning ticket at
the international booking counter at Hanoi main station on Le Duan street,
reported as open 07:00-17:30 daily. You'll
almost always find places available, even on the day of departure. It can help to know that for Nanning is 'Nam Ninh'
in Vietnamese. Alternatively, tickets are also sold in
Hanoi by Vietnam Hanoi Railways Tourist Company
(Travel Agency - 152 Le Duan Street, Hanoi, email
haratour@fpt.vn or call (84-4)
3518-6782.

You'll need to show your passport and
Chinese visa when buying tickets, so arrange your Chinese visa first.
It's easiest to get a visa in your home country before you leave, but you can also get
a visa in Hanoi. It was reported
back in 2010 that the Chinese embassy in Hanoi
wouldn't issue visas for anyone who wasn't a Vietnamese citizen
or resident, but since 2012 they apparently now will. If they
won't, you can still arrange a Chinese visa in Hanoi through a suitable
travel agency such as
www.hanoibackpackershostel.com. Remember you will need to comply with
any entry/onward ticket requirements when applying for a Chinese visa.

You can buy an onward ticket from
Nanning to Guangzhou and Guangzhou to Hong Kong when you get to Nanning station,
or you can arrange the Nanning to Guangzhou ticket online
with reliable Chinese train ticket agency
www.china-diy-travel.com and collect the ticket at the station in Nanning.

Arranging tickets this way
means you have the necessary proof of entry & exit to apply for a Chinese
visa.

To buy tickets
starting in Hong Kong, in person...

You can buy Hong Kong to
Guangzhou and Guangzhou to Nanning tickets at the China railway office at
Hung Hom railway station. They may be able to do the Nanning to Hanoi
ticket, but if not, buy it when you get to Nanning.

Alternatively, you can buy tickets
from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, Guangzhou to Nanning
and (if they can do it) the Nanning to Hanoi at the CTS (China
Travel Service) Central branch or CTS Mongkok branch in Hong
Kong, as
these two branches are equipped with the Chinese Railways
ticketing system. Again, if they cannot do the Nanning to
Hanoi train, buy this when you get to Nanning at the station.

The Nanning to Hanoi train
can easily be booked at Nanning station reservations office counter 16,
though a more recent report says counter 1. You'll usually find places
available even on the day of travel.

Chinese visas...

You'll need a Chinese visa to
cross China between Hong Kong and Hanoi, either a transit visa or tourist visa. The requirements vary depending
on your nationality and where you apply for the visa, but you'll often have to
prove you have a ticket into and out of China. This can be a pain when you can only buy
train tickets close to departure, or you plan to buy as you go, at the station
on the day. It can also lead to a 'Catch 22' if you plan to buy train
tickets in Hanoi and need to show the visa to get the train tickets. One way round this is to use a local
Hong Kong or Vietnamese travel agency to sort all
your tickets, using the agency's booking confirmation to get the visa, even
though the agency can't get the tickets themselves until close to departure
time. The ultimate fall-back is that old favourite, buy the cheapest
refundable airline ticket into & out of China, make a free-cancellation
hotel booking for all of the nights you plan to be in China using a hotel site such as booking.com,
use these to get your visa (which won't specify entry points or itinerary) then
cancel everything.

What are the trains
like?

Above left:
This is the Nanning to Hanoi train. The Guangzhou to
Nanning train is very similar Above right:
A comfortable 4-berth soft sleeper compartment on the
Nanning to Hanoi train, the compartments on the Guangzhou to
Nanning train are similar. It has two upper and two
lower berths, curtains, fresh clean sheets & pillows, and
small table. Cheaper hard sleepers are also available.
Interior photo courtesy of Chris at
www.myeggnoodles.com.

Travellers' reports...

Traveller Hendryk went from Hong Kong to Hanoi: "At
the Hung Hom station in Hong Kong there's now a china-railway-office
where you can book the
tickets to Guangzhou East (190 HKD) and onwards to Nanning for between 268 HKD
and 298 HKD, soft sleeper for
the next day or later (same day was fully booked). They charge a
service fee of 200 HKD for that. We took the 11:28 train to Guangzhou East
and the 15:43 sleeper train to Nanning, it also departs from Guangzhou East,
so no changing station necessary. We arrived in Nanning at 7:07am.
We almost overslept, but a good sign to get off is when the stewards change
your placeholder cards back to your ticket. In Nanning as said above,
it was very crowded in the train station, maybe because of that weekend.
At the counter number 16 (you should ask that before at the train info - no
English signing anywhere) we had to wait for more than an hour but we got
the soft sleeper tickets to Hanoi Gia Lam for 1.10.2012, departing 18:20, for
215 RMB each. [2012]

Traveller Jeremy Buddress
travelled from Hanoi to Hong Kong: "We bought our Hanoi-Nanning tickets at
Counter 10 of Hanoi main station - a 4 berth soft sleeper for
1,102,000 VND per person. The process was a little confusing.
We went to the station on a Tuesday to try and confirm costs and
times. While the ticket machine at the entry to the main
waiting area spits out slips for you spot in the queue, the '5'
button that we pressed for "International Tickets" produced a
5000-series number which never ended up on the display even after 45
minutes of waiting, so we went to a ticket window to ask. So,
after stepping up to on of the other ticket counters we learned that
the train did in fact leave every day (contradicting what one travel
agent told us, even after making a "confirming" phone call).
We weren't ready to buy yet as we were still waiting for our China
visas, which is another story. But it does bring up a good
point - you do need your passport when you buy tickets with the
proper China visa ready to go. So after getting our visas we
returned to the station on Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately the
noonish hour was apparently lunch so we waited until Counter 10
reopened around 13:30. Counter 10 is the only one labelled
'International Tickets" in English. The transaction was speedy
and we paid in cash. We caught a cab from the Old Quarter to
the Gia Lam Train Station in northeast Hanoi for about 70,000 VND.
Gia Lam is much smaller than the main station but nice enough.
We boarded our train right on time with only six other passengers.
The stop at the Vietnam border control was no more than 20 minutes
(off of the train, minus luggage) and at the China border was only
about 15 minutes (off of the train, with luggage). Arrival and
departure times were spot on per your timetable. On arriving
in Nanning we grabbed a room at a hotel across the street from the
train station for 80 RMB, as the train didn't leave for Guangzhou
until 00:30 that night. Getting our tickets for this leg was a
bit more challenging, as the Nanning ticket area is labelled almost
entirely in Chinese. Fortunately we were able to buy our
domestic tickets at the international counter (#16, also labelled in
English) for 197 RMB per person in a hard sleeper. These were
6 berth, open to the corridor bunks that were full to capacity.
There appeared to be an earlier train around 19:00 that night, but
it was full minus hard seats. Our train left about 15 minutes
late from Nanning, but again it was smooth sailing after that.
Arrival at the Guangzhou Main Station was a bit hectic as it is
quite massive. Meeting our friend "out front" proved to be a
challenge. The KFC is a nice landmark, attached to the station,
right in front, if you need to meet someone there. [April 2009, but still
current]

Traveller Erandathie Jayakody travelled from Hong Kong to Hanoi: I didn't buy the tickets in advance, I
bought tickets along the way. China Travel Services in Hong
Kong can arrange tickets for you with a few days notice from Hong
Kong to Guangzhou and from Guangzhou to Nanning. There is a
China Travel Service and another travel agent at the Hung Hom
Station in Hong Kong (at the concourse, not at the MTR station
itself). However, I found it cheaper to buy the tickets from
the station. I caught the train from Hung Hom station in HK to
Guangzhou East Station on 2 January 2009. Hong Kong to
Guangzhou was HKD$ 190. It left promptly at 10.42 and arrived
in Guangzhou at about mid-day. Buying the ticket from
Guangzhou was a bit difficult as I got caught up in the Chinese New
Year rush, however I managed to buy a sleeper ticket to Nanning to
depart same evening. The ticket to Nanning and Guilin are sold
at Counter 7. The ticket cost RMB 173. The train departs
from the Guangzhou main Station, the taxi ride from Guangzhou East
Station to the main station costs about RMB 30. The train left
at 16.52pm and arrived in Nanning at approximately 6am. I then
bought a ticket for the new overnight train from Nanning to Hanoi [see
below]. [January 2009]

Traveller Cath Battersby
traveller Hong Kong to Hanoi: We bought our tickets 3 days ahead at Hung
Hom station at China Railways (HK) holdings, under McDonalds. We
paid HK$999 for 2 of us HK to Nanning hard sleeper. (HK$190 HK to
Guangzhou, RMB 179 Guangzhou to Nanning and HK$100 commission each).
Soft sleeper would have been a total of HK$1235 for 2. We had to pay
in cash. The staff were very helpful and provided us with a B & W
map of Guangzhou metro. We left HK at 11.17. We weren’t
allowed through security until 10:35. Buy any drinks/snacks
you need in advance, nothing past security except toilets and duty
free. Excellent train and trouble free departure/immigration.
Upon arrival at Guangzhou the signs to the metro are in English and
easy to follow. It is fairly simple to work out how to get to
the main station with the coloured maps on display. Large signs at
Guangzhou main station show you which waiting room you need for your
train. Lots of snack food and hot water available. The
overnight train to Nanning was a smooth journey. The signs in
Nanning are now in English too and we bought tickets for train #5517
to Pingxiang (RMB 17, 8am – 11:30). Hard seats, friendly
co-passengers and some great scenery on this trip! In Pingxiang there
were a large number of people vying for our business. We paid RMB 5
for a mototaxi/tuktuk to the border and changed money in the back.
Very quick and easy at the Chinese border and more money changing
opportunities (although we didn’t see anywhere official). It’s
useful to have Dong as you’ll need to pay a small fee (VND 2000) for
your ‘medical check’ at Vietnamese immigration. We had a trouble
free entry. Once through immigration we could not find anyone
that would take us to Dong Dang. This may have been a scam but we
had to settle for paying US$5 each (cheaper if you can pay in Dong)
for a taxi to Lanson. We were taken straight to a minibus office and
we paid VND 110,000 (their starting price was VND 200,000) for a
seat to Hanoi’s main train station. This took about 3 hours and left
almost immediately. [January 2009]

The Hekou
to Kunming train passing through the mountains of Yunnan Province.
Photo courtesy of Jan Bockaert.

Kunming to Hanoi train
back in action...

There
used to be a twice-weekly metre-gauge sleeper train from Kunming in China to
Hanoi, but in 2002 floods and landslides damaged the Chinese part of the
line and the train was discontinued. However, a brand new standard-gauge Kunming-Hekou railway line has
finally been completed and as of December 2014 trains are once more running
between Kunming and the border town of Hekou. It's now possible once again
to travel between Kunming and Hanoi by train, safely, comfortably and
affordably, albeit using a Chinese train from Kunming to the Chinese border town
of Hekou, then a taxi a few km to the border post, walking across the border and on to Lao
Cai station in Vietnam for a Vietnamese sleeper train to Hanoi. Here's
how...

Kunming ► Hanoi

Step 1, travel from Kunming to Hekou North (= Hekoubei) by train. There
are several trains a day, for example the K9832 leaving Kunming at 09:29 arriving Hekou North at
15:53, and the K9822 leaving Kunming at 16:00 and arriving Hekou North at 21:44.
The fare is 70.5 RMB ($11) for a regular hard seat (comfortable enough) or RMB
182 ($30) with a seat in a soft sleeper. There's even an overnight train
with hard sleepers, departing 22:48 arriving 06:07. You can check
times & fares (and if you don't mind a few dollars booking fee, buy tickets) at
www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains.

Step 2, transfer from Hekou North station in China to Lai Cai station in Vietnam:
Either take a bus the several kilometres from Hekou North station to the Hekou
border point for RMB 2, journey time 10-15 minutes, or take a taxi for around RMB 10-15,
there will be plenty of taxis waiting at the station.
Walk across the border to the Vietnamese side (border controls can take up to an
hour) then walk another 25 minutes or take a 5-minute taxi ride into Lao Cai,
just 2.5km (1.5 miles) from the border post. There are hotels in both
Hekou and Lao Cai if you need them.

You may want to visit the
pleasant hill station at Sapa for a day or two before going on to Hanoi, Sapa is
just 40km from Lao Cai by taxi, bus or minibus,
see details here.

Step 3, travel from Lao Cai to Hanoi by overnight sleeper train,
see the train times & fares above. There are
several sleeper trains every night, some with cheap DSVN (Vietnamese Railways)
soft & hard sleepers and others with a variety of comfortable privately-run soft
sleeping-cars with 2 & 4-berth compartments aimed at tourists.

Hanoi ► Kunming

Step 1, travel from Hanoi
to Lao Cai by overnight sleeper train,
see the train times & fares above.
There are cheap DSVN (Vietnamese Railways) soft & hard sleepers and a variety of
comfortable privately-run soft sleeping-cars with 2 & 4-berth compartments aimed
at tourists. You may want visit the pleasant hill station of Sapa for a day or two before
going on into China, Sapa is 40km from Lai Cai by taxi, bus or minibus.

Step 2, transfer from Lao Cai station to Hekou.
Lao Cai is just 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the Chinese border. You can walk
(25 minutes) or take a taxi (5 minutes) from Lai Cai station
to the border post and walk across into Hekou on the Chinese side.
Passing through both sets of customs takes about an hour.
In Hekou, the Hekou North (=Hekoubei) station is a few kilometres away.
You take a taxi for around RMB 10-15.

Step 3, travel from Hekou to Kunming by train. There are several
trains a day, for example you should easily make the K9694 leaving Hekou North station (= Hekoubei) at
16:16 arriving Kunming at 22:29. The fare is
70.5 RMB ($11) for a regular hard seat (comfortable enough) or RMB 182 ($30)
with a seat in a soft sleeper. There's even a sleeper train to Kunming
with hard sleepers, leaving Hekoubei at 23:20. You can check times & fares
(and if you don't mind a few dollars booking fee, buy tickets) at
www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains.

Traveller's reports...

Traveller Jan Bockaert
travelled from Hanoi to Kunming by train in December 2014: "Two
days ago, I took the train from Hanoi to Kunming in China over the new line
from Hekoubei to Kunming. The trip went exactly as described on your site.

Lonely Planet has some
warnings about the border crossing from Lao Cai to Hekou. But it went butter
smooth, very friendly and professional at both sides of the border. It took
me about half an hour, an hour and a half if you factor in the time
difference between China and Vietnam.

Hekou North [Hekoubei]
station is quite far from the city centre, in the middle of nowhere. You can
get a taxi from the border post to the station for 20 yuan, but the first
driver I took asked 40. (about 5 euro) None of the drivers wanted to use the
meter.

The station building isn’t
finished yet. You can’t leave your luggage yet, and there is no shop in the
station, although there was a small stand in front of the station. Part of
the station crew was also still in training. The ticket office was open from
5:30 till 6:20 from 9:00 till 11:00 and from 14:30 till 16:30. The woman
selling me the ticket spoke decent English.

I booked a hard seat at
around 10 in the morning, and by the time we left, the compartment was fully
booked. Most of the wagons seemed to be sleepers however.

The first part of the line
goes (literally) trough some very spectacular mountains, i guess the first
hour or so, about 80 percent of the trip went trough tunnels. The view on
the other 20 percent of the line is very nice. Once you are out of the
mountains, it gets dark quickly.

I had to wait almost 8 hours
in between getting of the train in Lao Cai and getting on the train in
Hekou, but both Lao Cai and Hekou are big enough cities to keep you busy
with changing money, buying a Chinese sim card etc. I had a very relaxed
day."

There is no one agency who
can arrange all the stages of a trip like this, so you will need to plan
it and arrange each leg yourself - a small exercise in project
management..! Just follow the advice on each seat61 page to buy
tickets for each part of the journey. Where do you start? Read through the seat61
pages linked above, then sketch out your
itinerary using a simple spreadsheet like this.

Lonely
Planets or Rough Guides...

Paying for a guidebook may seem an unnecessary expense, but it's a tiny fraction
of what you're spending on your whole trip. You will see so much more, and
know so much more about what you're looking at, if you have a decent guidebook.
The best guidebooks for independent travel are the Lonely Planet or Rough
Guide. You won't regret buying one of these guides!

Hotels in Saigon, Hanoi, Hue or elsewhere in Vietnam...

www.hotelscombined.com
checks all the main hotel booking sites at once to find the widest choice of
hotels & the cheapest seller. It's been named as the World's Leading Hotel
Comparison Site in the World Travel Awards and I recommend it
to find hotels in even the smallest places and to check that another retailer
isn't selling the same hotel for less.

www.booking.com
is my favourite hotel booking site, and unless HotelsCombined throws up major price
differences I prefer doing my bookings in one place here.

You can usually book with free
cancellation - this allows you to confirm your accommodation at no risk before train
booking opens. It also means you can hold accommodation while you finalise
your itinerary, and alter your plans as they evolve - a feature I use all
the time when putting a trip together.

The famous and historic
Continental Hotel
is one of my favourite hotels worldwide, not merely a place to stay
but a Saigon landmark since 1880. Indeed, the Continental is
the backdrop for much of the action in Graham Greene's novel 'The
Quiet American', set in Saigon during the Franco-Vietnamese war.
If it's in your price range or if you can stretch your budget, the
Continental is superbly located, right next to the Opera House in
the centre of Saigon and a stone's throw from Saigon's distinctive
town hall, post office and cathedral. It's quiet,
understated, clean and comfortable with high ceilings, marble floors
and wood panelling, and not a corporate clone like so many chain
hotels. The breakfast buffet is good, and it has a pleasant
central courtyard and bar if you prefer to eat or enjoy a beer al
fresco. There's free WiFi, too. A double room costs around $140 (£88) per night.
Tripadvisor reviews. Nearby, the famous Rex Hotel was where
many American officers stayed during the Vietnam war. If you
prefer something more glitzy and glamorous, try the impressive
Majestic Hotel, a
mere parvenu dating from 1925 with many art nouveau features,
located across the road from the Mekong river.

The
Continental Hotel, a Saigon landmark since 1880, next to the Opera House with simple, spacious rooms...

A little budget gem, the
Hanoi Trendy Hotel & Spa (formerly the Hanoi Art Hotel) may not be historic or
grand, but it's an excellent low-cost choice from $45
a night for a room with toilet & shower, tea & coffee making facilities,
free WiFi, safe, free mineral water, a great breakfast, and great
staff at reception who really put themselves out to help you.
It's well located in central Hanoi, a short walk from the War
Remnants Museum, a 10-15 minute taxi ride from Hanoi's main station.
Of course, at the luxury end of the scale we have Hanoi's most
venerable and upmarket hotel, the luxurious and expensive
Sofitel Metropole, which comes complete with outdoor swimming
pool and lido bar.

At the top end, look
no further than
La Residence Hotel & Spa, located in the former French
governor's residence on the banks of the Perfume River. For
the budget-conscious, try the equally central
Than Thien Hotel. Both get great reviews.

The best hotel in
Sapa, which even runs its own train from Hanoi,
see the section here.
You'll find a real log fire burning in the lobby and restaurant, and
they do an excellent breakfast buffet. The hotel features an indoor swimming pool and adjacent spa, too.
If your budget can stretch, this is the place to stay!

Overland travel by train & bus
around Vietnam is an essential part of the experience,
so once there, don't cheat and fly, stay on the ground!
But if a long-haul flight is unavoidable to reach Vietnam in
the first place, check Opodo and also try the Skyscanner search tool
to compare flight prices & routes
worldwide across 600 airlines...

3)
Lounge passes...

Take out decent travel insurance, it's essential...

Never travel overseas without travel insurance from a reliable
insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover. It should also cover
cancellation and loss of cash and belongings, up to a sensible
limit.
An annual
multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip
policies even for just 2 or 3 trips
a year, I have an annual policy myself. Here are some suggested insurers.
Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these
links.

Get a spare credit card, designed for travel with no currency
exchange loading & low or no ATM fees...

It costs nothing to take out an extra credit card.
If you keep it in a different part of your luggage so you're
not left stranded if
your wallet gets stolen, this is a form of extra travel insurance in itself. In addition,
some credit cards are significantly better for
overseas travel than others. Martin Lewis's
www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money
explains which UK credit cards have the lowest currency
exchange commission loadings when you buy something
overseas, and the lowest cash withdrawal fees when you use
an ATM abroad. Taking this advice can save you quite a
lot on each trip compared to using your normal high-street
bank credit card!

When you're travelling you often use free WiFi in public places which may not be
secure. A VPN means your connection to the internet is encrypted & always
secure, even using unsecured WiFi. In countries such as China where access
to Twitter & Facebook is restricted, a VPN gets around these restrictions.
And lastly, you can select the geographic location of the IP address you browse
with, to get around geographic restrictions which some websites apply - for
example one booking site charges a booking fee to non-European visitors but none
to European visitors, so if you're not located in Europe you can avoid this fee
by browsing with a UK IP address using a VPN.
VPNs & why you need one explained.
ExpressVPN
is a best buy and I use them myself.